The Summit Page #3

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cuts on the head,

black nose, broken,

blood from mouth.

- Finish.

- Totally finished, almost.

If I knew that Dren was dead,

I would not have gone up.

The Serbians,

they want to take him

down to base camp.

I said that that's impossible.

"What we can do is that we can"

"at least bring him

down to Camp Four"

"and give him

a proper burial there."

Honestly, what's the point

of lowering a body

from 8,150 meters to 7,800?

8,000 meter,

you're in the death zone.

Every step is a burden.

But when you have a dead body,

it's a hell of a load.

Okay, we have to go down

like this, guys.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- Whoop.

You have to stay not so close.

Yes.

If you do fall,

you release, okay?

It's-it's-it's-

it's our lives too, okay?

- Yeah, yeah.

- Remember.

Jehan Baig, from Pakistan,

suddenly started acting

really weird.

He's coming down

on my right side,

holding onto the rope,

which goes around my lower legs,

and we are crying out...

Release the rope!

Release the rope!

He did not make one single move

to stop his fall.

Jesus Christ.

Instead, he just let go,

and he shoots off like a rocket

straight out to the open air

and just disappears.

Oh, K2,

it was full of surprises.

The conquest in '54

was much more complicated

than we

could ever have imagined.

But believe me,

we came prepared.

We were 11 climbers.

With us, 13 Hunzas

and a battalion of Balti,

the humble,

extraordinary local porters.

After endless months

of preparation,

it began with a fantastic march

to the foot of the peak

through an exotic,

timeless landscape.

We laid siege to the mountain

for two grueling months.

We established base camp

and then started building camps

all the way up the mountain,

acclimatizing our bodies

to the altitude,

the unknown,

preparing ourselves

for the summit attempt-

anything to help us survive.

In memory of Art Gilkey,

Dudley Wolfe, Pasang Kitar.

1954. Unbelievable.

'94.

There are many people

who just died on their way down

from the summit.

Yeah.

Dying on... died on descent.

Almost on everyone

you can read it,

"Died on descent."

Yeah.

Here's the original cross.

Everybody saying,

all Western people,

even our Sherpa community,

they say to me,

"Why are you going on K2?"

"Because it is too dangerous"

"and the accident rate

is too high."

"Why you are going there?"

If you climb on K2,

you have to trust each other.

Fully for 200%.

Gerard said, "Hey, listen."

"It would be lovely

if I can bring Pemba."

And Pemba is a Sherpa,

but a lot of people

are thinking about a Sherpa

that he's just an ordinary guy

who is bringing up stuff

up the mountain.

But Pemba was a really...

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